MINNEAPOLIS—It’s time to stop asking who Percy Harvin compares to and start asking if there has ever been anyone quite like him in NFL history.

The 5-foot-11, 195-pounder has the speed of an elite kick returner, the hands and quickness of a premier slot receiver, the power and natural instincts of a between-the-tackles running back and a fearless disregard for his body that resembles a crash test dummy.

"I don't know what he is, honestly," Vikings receivers coach George Stewart said. "I don't know if he's a receiver. I don't know if he's a running back. I don't know if he's a returner. But I do know this: He's a darn good football player."

He’s also a main reason the Vikings have turned what was presumed to be an uncompetitive rebuilding year into a surprising 5-2 start heading into Thursday night’s game against the Buccaneers (2-4) at Mall of America Field.

An early MVP candidate, Harvin leads the league in combined yards (1,142) and yards after the catch (427) while ranking second in catches (53) and kickoff return average (35.1). He also recently joined Hall of Famer Gale Sayers (1965-67) and former Eagle Timmy Brown (1961-63) as the only players in NFL history to score touchdowns rushing, receiving and on kick returns in three consecutive seasons.

“He’s the best player I’ve ever played with,” said teammate and four-time All-Pro running back Adrian Peterson.

In a separate interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Peterson also said he considers himself and Harvin the league’s two best players, comparing them to Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Asked which of one of them is Jordan, Peterson said, “There are two Jordans on this team.”

The “Jordans” already have a combined 1,929 yards and seven touchdowns on 242 touches this season. Harvin, who had a team season-record 2,081 combined yards while winning the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award in 2009, is on pace to shatter that mark with 2,610 combined yards. He has 577 yards and two touchdowns receiving, 73 yards and one touchdown on 17 carries (4.3) and 492 yards and one touchdown on 14 kickoff returns.

“Percy is the most dynamic offensive player in the game right now,” said Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald, whose team lost to the Vikings 21-14 on Sunday. “It’s hard to miss what he’s doing. He’s on ESPN every weekend with the highlight plays.”

Harvin, 24, also has become more of a team leader, which makes it even harder to believe just how far he and the Vikings have come since their June mini-camp. Just four months ago, Harvin told reporters that he wasn’t happy in Minnesota. Then he skipped a mandatory workout, threatened to hold out of training camp and asked to be traded.

Harvin didn’t say why he was upset, but it was presumed to be contract-related since Harvin is making a relative pittance ($915,000) in the fourth year of his five-year rookie contract. Harvin said it wasn’t contract-related and later hinted that it had more to do with having his and other players’ roles better defined within the Vikings’ offense. Whatever it was exactly, give coach Leslie Frazier credit for calming the situation quickly before it exploded.

As for the contract, Harvin is almost certain to land a mega-deal after this season. The Vikings typically reward their top players with a new deal as they’re heading into the final year of their contract.

Harvin has been deserving of a big deal since about the time he fell to the Vikings at the 22nd overall draft pick in 2009. He fell in part because of character concerns and a history of migraine headaches that dates back to when he was 10. Harvin hasn’t been a problem off the field. As for the migraines, he missed three games and several practices during his first two seasons, but has been symptom-free while playing in 26 consecutive games since then.

Much of Harvin’s success is genetics and how he maintains his body with weight training and impeccable nutrition.

"You completely forget that he's a receiver," said Tom Kanavy, Vikings head strength and conditioning coach. "He's absolutely, pound for pound, one of the strongest players on the team. And not just in certain areas, but overall body strength. With his numbers, he ought to be training with the linebackers and maybe the linemen."

Harvin can squat 400 pounds multiple times and leg presses 600 pounds. But he doesn’t get his on-field fearlessness in the weight room. That’s an ingrained trait that Peterson noticed early on during Harvin’s rookie season.

"AP [Adrian Peterson] started calling me 'Mighty Mouse' my rookie year, after we played the Ravens," Harvin said. "It was a block I put on Ray Lewis. I got up and started talking [to Lewis] a little bit, and guys were impressed. I think they thought I was supposed to be scared because it was Ray Lewis."

Stewart remembers preparing Harvin for that particular block all week. It was a key block on a run designed for Peterson.

"All week, we kept saying, 'Percy, you have to go and get Ray Lewis on this play,' " Stewart said. "Then he went and stoned Ray Lewis. But that's Percy. He's just a tenacious football player."

Naturally, Lewis got even when he blasted Harvin later in the game.

“My helmet came off and everything," Harvin said. "But I jumped up like he was any other player and got in his face. That's when I think I won the team over."

Harvin’s speed and quickness make him one of the best kickoff returners the league has ever seen. He’s tied for eighth in NFL history with five kickoff returns for touchdowns, including a franchise-record 105-yarder that helped beat the Lions in Detroit earlier this season. A sixth one was called back because of an illegal block on opening kickoff of Sunday’s win over Arizona.

All of Harvin’s strengths make him one of the tougher slot receivers to cover in the league. The Vikings take advantage of that by calling the bubble screen with about the same frequency and success that the Patriots do with Wes Welker.

"A couple of times, I actually do go to the line and you hear all the defenders calling out, 'Bubble, bubble, bubble!' " said Harvin, who has a franchise-record seven career 200-yard all-purpose games. "It gets a little nervous."

Yet Harvin can beat the defense even when it knows what’s coming. Such was the case in the Week 5 rout of the Titans. Harvin made two Titans miss and ran through two others for a 10-yard touchdown on what might have been his best play of the season.

"He makes big plays even when [defenses] have the numbers to make the play," Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said. "[Tennessee] had the numbers, but an individual as talented as he is makes a play out of nothing."

When the Vikings were huddling before the 2009 draft, the name that kept coming up as a comparison was Carolina’s Steve Smith, a stocky, strong receiver who’s 5-9. Smith, a two-time All-Pro receiver, has 55 rushes for 370 yards in 12 seasons. Harvin already has 102 carries for 660 yards (6.5) in less than 3 1/2 seasons.

Stewart and others have compared Harvin to Eric Metcalf, an excellent return man who began his career as a running back in Cleveland but eventually became a receiver in Atlanta. But everyone agrees that Harvin’s strength and power is far superior to Metcalf’s.

Others have thrown out Dave Meggett, former Charger Gary Anderson and Joe Washington, among others, as comparisons.

"I guess the closest would be Marshall Faulk and the running backs that could split out wide," Harvin said. “But I still think I'm different."